How do you and your family live with less?

Do you like soft drinks, beer, or coffee?

Drink tap water instead.

Like TV?

Cancel your cable.

Do you eat out?

Cook your own meals.

Do you smoke?

Quit.

You will save a ton of money if you remove non essential luxuries from your life.

Beans and rice. Lots of beans and rice.

And welcome to Fluther.

We suffered a similar situation over the last (almost) two years. The first things to go were the luxuries: Maid service, eating out, going to the movies, HBO. Next on the chopping block was Netflix, magazines, books. We skimped on groceries, switched to cheaper brands, cut out the niceties. No impulse shopping… no new clothes unless they were absolutely necessary, cut back outings with the kids to next to nothing, cut out the little treats. Since we were uninsured, we put our health on the back burner. I don’t recommend it, but I had little choice. Sadly, in the end, nothing we did mattered much and we ended up defaulting on some of our debts. I’m just now in a position to begin paying them off, thank god.

Take a lessen from those who lose their entire home from a natural disaster. I don’t know how they do it, it’s just the tenacity of the human spirit. You might have less now but you still have what you have. What’s worse is to still be doing the things that caused the loss. It’s also perspective, how you see your current financial worth in relation to the past you, and the family next door or depicted through media. When your in a hole, just lower the sides.

Perhaps you can apply for food stamps. I know there’s a stigma behind it, but right now, I believe my case worker told me that one out of every two US citizens can be approved for food stamps because of the economy. It’s also seriously one of the easiest things through the government that you can ever apply for believe it or not. They measure how many people are in your household, what your monthly income is, what bills you have to pay, etc. and it all helps to determine how much you’ll receive each month for groceries. Most grocery stores, I think even including Costco, will accept your EBT card. The money also rolls over into the next month if you don’t use it all in the previous month.
I applied only a month ago and its already taken a huge weight off my shoulders until I can financially get back on my feet. It’s just one expense you don’t have to worry about. Don’t be ashamed about it. It just helps you get ahead.
Just Google the city you live in along with food stamps and the website will pop up along with the offices in your area.

Good luck to you and your family!

Another way to save on food expenses is to order your food through Angel Food Ministries. The send out boxes of food at a greatly reduced cost, and there is no income requirement to meet. Everyone is automatically eligible.

Lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Eggs are cheap and equally nutritious as meat. Home cook meals, no buying resturant food. Cut back on heating and cooling. Multi purpose stuff. Cut out cable, learn to play inexpensive games with the family for fun. No rentals. Don’t drive the car for every little errand. Walk if you can, or otherwise save all your shopping for one day so you don’t waste gas on a bunch of little trips to the supermarket. Coupon clipping. No expensive trips. Cut your own hair, do your own nails. Only buy what you absolutely need for now. Food and clothing. Don’t buy because you want. Cut back on things like air freshers. Vacuum once a week instead of every day. Use soap and water instead of expensive cleaners.
Go to a consignment shop and turn in your clothes that you don’t wear or anything else you don’t really need and then buy clothing there as you need it. Internet is more expensive the higher speed you have. If you don’t use it for business, get a cheaper speed. It will save you money.
Talk to some of your creditors and tell them of your situation. They may either lower the amount you have to pay monthly or some may even forgive the interest so long as you make a payment plan and stick to it. Your bank may be more apt to do it than credit card companies. Bottom line is they want their money, so they will take it any way they can. Explain it will only be temperary.
If you lost a job. Check to see if you have some sort of insurance with any of your loans that will help you make payments till you have a job again.
Best of luck.

Thank you… all your responses are very helpful!

I tracked all expenditures by saving receipts on everything and carrying a little notebook in which I wrote incidentals such as purchases from vending machines, parking fees, etc. Then I added them up in categories. It didn’t take long to discover that a lot of unnecessary expenditures fell into a few groups, such as restaurants and takeouts, for a big one. You can cook a lot of meals at home (pretty easy ones) staring with a 25-pound bag of rice.

There are things you don’t need at all (movie rentals, a bag of chips, salon haircut), and then there are things you need but could pay less for (gas, shampoo, shoes). Make the distinction. Awareness is a really big tool to cultivate and learn how to use.

Don’t let yourself be pressured into spending money you don’t have and don’t want to commit, whether it’s keeping up your former standard of socializing, responding to family demands (especially kids!), or yielding to some major indulgence as if to make it up to everybody. This is not the year for a trip to Disneyland or a new backyard pool. This is the year for getting a library card, getting comfortable with a good basic cookbook, tuning up the bicycles, and learning how to use Mom’s sewing machine.

Last summer, my mom and I were desperate to make some money (well, not that desperate, I wasn’t giving up the booty, if you know what I mean) but we needed to make some money, fast, or I was most likely going to lose my apartment. One thing we did is have a garage sale. I sold some collector’s barbies and dolls to a doll shop. I sold coin collections and other valuable coins like silver dimes and silver quarters and buffalo nickels to a coin shop. Always shop around though. There are some coin shops that are very generous and others not so much. Do your research online to find out how much your coins are worth first. Stay away from pawn shops.
We also sold old gold jewelry to one of those cash for gold companies. Stay away from Cash4Gold though. Freaking scam. I found another legit place with an A+ on BBB and they were incredibly generous and saved my ass.

You can do all of these things, that is if you actually want to get rid of such valuables. If not, you can hold off and only go down that road if it’s your last option. Again, good luck.

@Carinthia
you take me as someone who is concerned with image and status as well as basic survival. That’s normal, image and status is part of survival. How people percieve us is in part to the image we convey to them. What they see and what we think they see is as close as we can get to the reality of it. Find the usefulness in everything. Even this.

Document every cent. Buy a moleskin and then write down that you bought a moleskin in it. It is a lot easier to get cheap when you have a list of everything you bought in the last month. It might not help that month but the next month it is easier to trim the fat. And for tracking groceries I just staple the receipt in. Fuck writing down everything I buy at the grocery store.

Back when i was a rookie police officer, the salary was unbelievably low, compared to todays standards. my wife was a jewel when it came to pinching pennies. our kitchen pantry was loaded with cans and cans of veg-all. i have eaten enough veg-all to hold me the rest of my life. we bought day old bread and even sometimes raided the dumpsters at Krogers food stores. on payday, she would buy enough food to last two weeks. i was in the National Guard and we washed my fatigues in the tub. we qualified for food stamps, but our pride would not let us accept them. this was a rough time for my family, BUT we survived. and, you will, too. sit down and make a list of ways to save money. this may be a dramatic change to the lifestyle you have been use to. but, you do what you have to do for your family and your survival.

I realize a lot of this issue is only a perception problem… need to tweak that. Also I think growing up poor set me up with a little fear to go there again. It’s def. time to make some seemingly hard choices now and helps to know (as always) that I’m neither the first nor the only one in that spot!

Don’t forget that bad things do happen, be aware of people who believe that nothing bad ever happens. Life can give you more than you can handle. I don’t know you very well, just from what I’ve gathered, but I wish you well.